Then There was One: Brandon Courtney

Brandon Courtney taking a break during workouts

Then there was 1 athlete still working hard on his skill set as Brandon Courtney qualified for the State 4A Track Meet in Austin this weekend.

Courtney had a PR (Personal Best) finishing second in the Region Track Meet last weekend as this Sophomore continues to whittle down his CL best time for the 300 Meter Hurdles.

Courtney’s time of 39.56 is now right at 3 seconds better than Karl Tucker’s 42.23 that he ran Region Meet back in 2010.

 Top 10 300 Meter Hurdles
     name                    time             when
  1. Brandon Courtney        39.56            2015 Region Meet
  2. Karl Tucker             42.23            2010 Region Meet
  3. Joe Marple              42.26            2015 JV District Meet
  4. Dakota Repa             42.32            2011
  5. Luke Steward            42.44            2011
  6. Chandler Faulkner       42.50            2012
  7. Gerrit Wilkins          43.81            2015 JV District Meet
  8. Devin Coco              45.38            2014
  9. Alex Martinez           45.66            2013
 10. Todd Pippin             45.72            2010

There were three Hawks that broke into the top 10 this year and two of those (Joe Marple and Gerrit Wilkins) did so running with the Junior Varsity.

Courtney is also performing as a Sophomore, so that makes this group of athletes competitors for two more years.

Competition will only enhance these three hurdlers as they continue this event.

The 300 Meter Hurdle has to rank as one of the most grueling races as the event is an all out sprint with an added hurdle to keep the race interesting.

In late March last year, Courtney was running a 41.74 time at the Hawk Relays and this young man had moved up about 3 meets earlier from Junior Varsity team.

His Region time this year (39.56) compared to his 2nd place finish of 40.98 last season’s Area Meet, is the type of improvement you would look for to inch up the State Best’s ladder.

At last year’s Region Meet, Courtney finished 6th and had a time of 42.48 in his freshman season.

 2014 Season                          2015 Season
 Feb.  23  Bastrop    45.62 JV        Feb.  21  Hawk        41.19
 Feb.  27  Blanco     44.73 JV        March  5  Bandera     42.19
 March  7  Hays       43.24 Varsity   March 12  LakeTravis  42.18
 March 20  Wimberley  43.06 Varsity   March 26  Texas Relays
 April 10  District   40.51 Varsity   April  2  Wimberley   41.81
 April 16  Area       40.98 Varsity   April 15  District    39.96
 April 26  Region     42.48 Varsity   April 23  Area        39.68
                                      April  2  Region      39.56

What was interesting about Courtney is his ascension from Junior Varsity to Varsity his first year as he started with a 45.82 time that improved to a year’s best of 40.51 in the district meet, an improvement of 3 seconds from a Wimberley Meet, to being in the District meet three weeks later.

“I think my size and the training gave me the confidence to run varsity, and also working out in the weight room,” Courtney thought as he talked about how he continued to improve during his freshman season.

Now comes another meet milestone as we can only wait to see how this ending for track will culminate.

In this year’s Region Meet, Courtney was on, as he rose to the occasion to put himself in a position to hurdle at the highest stage in Austin.

“I want to place and I don’t want to finish last,” Courtney said when responding to what his goals for this race would be. “This is a good experience to go to a D-I college and just go and see the surroundings and all the people I have raced and see some new people.”

“I have been consistently running under 40 seconds and I knew in my last race I was in the same area,” Courtney hurdled while talking how his Region race transpired. “I was in the third lane and I wanted to keep up those first 200 yards, then when I wanted to push it and I had a little bit but not a lot on my finish.”

By this time of the year, Courtney has a good idea of what he can do on this race.

“The Coaches are making run everyday and my conditioning is pretty good but it does get kind of lonely,” Courtney deduced as he pondered how his practices have been going for this week.

Being the last sporting event of the year sometimes can be lonely, especially in a sport like track & field when you continue to lose teammates as the event gets to the last stage.

The ReSporter and the Hawk Nation, wish Brandon Courtney the best as he takes his final curtain call, Go Hawks and Go Brandon!!